Methods for the triggering of occupant protection systems dependent on acceleration signals are known in great numbers, whereby therein, in addition to the amplitude of the acceleration signal, also the frequency spectrum thereof is already taken into account in the evaluation, as can be seen, for example, from the U.S. Pat. No. 5,073,860 or the DE 40 34 974 A1.
Due to the early triggering of the occupant protection systems necessary for the occupant safety, a decision must be made about the triggering relatively early in the course of an accident. The triggering thresholds are therefore relatively low and can be reached unfortunately also by interference signals, as they arise with an uneven roadway, contacts of a lateral roadway curb or the like. In that regard, especially the vehicle itself acts in an interfering manner due to its spring suspension and the self-resonance or eigenresonance of individual parts. Especially it is to be determined, that erroneous triggerings of the occupant protection system came about due to such interfering signals despite the fulfillment of prescribed specifications by the acceleration sensor assemblies after their installation in certain vehicles.